1. Technical Field
This invention relates to an electronic document collection, submitting a query to the collection, and presenting query results. More specifically, the invention relates to creating search profiles by placing an emphasis on each section of an intellectual property document to be searched, and presenting the query results based upon relevancy of returned query results to at least one of the search profiles.
2. Description of the Prior Art
All intellectual property documents submitted for examination before any of a worldwide selection of patent offices, hereinafter Patent Office, must meet certain requirements, including, each intellectual property document must be deemed new, useful, and non-obvious. To properly prepare an intellectual property document for examination, it is useful to have knowledge of prior intellectual property documents, i.e. prior art, in related areas of technology as only one patent may be granted per invention. The process of ascertaining prior art is known as a search. The results of the search generally help the drafters of any subsequent intellectual property application to focus their efforts on what appears to be patentable or otherwise protectable subject matter and aids in developing a reasonable strategy for achieving the goals of the inventor or owner of the intellectual property rights.
Prior to the evolution of technology in the current electronic information age, it was known that intellectual property searches were conducted manually. A searcher would review a disclosure and based upon a classification system, ascertain where the disclosure should be classified, and thereafter conduct a search of documents and records within the classification. It was recognized that the searcher would visually review appropriate sections of the intellectual property document based upon the defined scope of the search being conducted. With the advent of information technology, manual searches are no longer available in most jurisdictions as most intellectual property grants and published applications are only available in electronic form. With the advent of the electronic format of the intellectual property document, similar strategies employed with the manual search may be used for searching an electronic intellectual property database.
Different classes of searches may be commissioned to achieve different results. For example, a novelty search may be commissioned to ascertain whether or not to submit a filing for an intellectual property asset. A product clearance search may be commissioned to ascertain whether a product is covered under the claims of a current intellectual property asset. An invalidity search may be commissioned to determine if the issued claims of the intellectual property asset are valid, etc. Prior electronic intellectual property document search tools do not support the different classes of searches. Rather, the burden is on the person doing the search, also known as the searcher, to limit the sections of the intellectual property document to be reviewed in the search based upon the scope of the search. As the quantity of granted intellectual property rights and published pending intellectual property applications in the database grow, the burden on the searcher increased as more associated documents need to be reviewed for each search.
Accordingly, there is a need for a tool to be used by a searcher to organize the results of a query submission to mitigate the burdens associated with evaluating the results and to take advantage of the electronic format of the intellectual property documents. The tool should enable the searcher to leverage the different sections of the intellectual property document during the search to more efficiently and effectively determine accurate, relevant, and desirable search results.